Snooker:Ronnie O'Sullivan won his battle of the showmen with Jimmy White in Glasgow and then claimed his now-famous reluctance to complete a 147 break earlier in the week was all a big wind-up.
O’Sullivan dismissed maximum breaks as “quite easy” and admitted he had taken plenty of pleasure from the reaction to his behaviour on Monday, when he almost refused the final black in his clash with Mark King.
The 34-year-old three-time former world champion today set up a last-16 clash with Scotland’s Stephen Hendry by beating White 3-1 at the World Open.
White, 48, showed glimpses of the form which carried him to six World Championship finals, making a break of 88 to take the third frame. But he missed a red when 57-0 ahead in the fourth, and O’Sullivan punished him with a match-clinching run of 80.
O’Sullivan enjoyed playing his good friend, and there was no repeat of the controversy which raged following his match against King.
In that match, O’Sullivan had asked referee Jan Verhaas at the start of his big break what the prize for a maximum was. He was told there was no bonus beyond the highest break prize, and then produced the perfect clearance until initially refusing the final black. Verhaas pushed him to complete the 147.
Today O’Sullivan admitted: “I knew there was no highest break prize. I got the bumf through earlier on in the season. I could see they weren’t putting any prize money up.
“But I was playing that badly I just needed something to turn me on, and I thought, ‘what better way than to say I was going for a maxi from the first red, let everybody know that I’m going for it, and I never pot the black’.
“I love leaving the black on 140. It’s more of a buzz than making a maxi, because maxis are quite easy.”
O’Sullivan stressed the money was not really a factor.
“I don’t care about money, I live off a shoestring,” he said. “I don’t spend money, I don’t need money. I go out running every day. I keep fit, I don’t go out, I’m a bit of a hermit and I enjoy playing snooker now and again. I just like winding a few people up.
“I know it’ll get people talking and I’ve just sat back and enjoyed listening to you all.”
O’Sullivan recalled making a 140 and leaving the black to make an impact on Hendry as a 16-year-old.
“I thought, ‘how can I impress the legend, the man himself, he’s my hero?’. So I thought, ‘I’ll make a 140 and leave the black. He might be impressed by that’. I need reasons to play now. Sometimes I get a bit bored and in my comfort zone.”
O’Sullivan is relishing his clash with Hendry. Eight years ago, at the World Championship, O’Sullivan said he had wanted to beat the seven-time world champion in their semi-final and send Hendry “back to his sad little life”.
Hendry won that match, and the pair put the incident behind them years ago.
O’Sullivan said: “I had that spat with him a few years ago and he didn’t speak to me for three years after that. But we’ve got mutual respect. He’s top drawer with a proven track record.”
England’s Andrew Higginson caused an upset by eliminating Hong Kong cueman Marco Fu, winning 3-1 to set up a meeting with Neil Robertson. China’s Ding Junhui became the first player to reach the quarter-finals, making a 110 break on his way to posting a 3-0 win over Marcus Campbell.